Solidarity 574, 2 December 2020

Neurodivergent Labour marked the end of its first year with a constructive and democratic online AGM on 28 November. Reviewing the past year, Chair Janine Booth described ND Labour’s response to political developments during the year, including taking on anti-vaccination propaganda and supporting trade union disputes while helping them to become more accessible. Campaigns Officer Andy Forse reported on ND Labour’s involvement in the ongoing campaign to stop the deportation of 22-year-old autistic man Osime Brown to Jamaica. Trade union organising received a boost with the passing of a...

There comes a time in every woman’s life when she starts dyeing her hair. Unless she is so radical that she’s shaved it all off and become a Buddhist monk. As you grow older the temptation to shave it all off as an f-you to the fashionistas grows and grows. I mean, what’s so great about long hair? It didn’t do Rapunzel much good. Years and years growing it on her own in a tower and then some prince comes and climbs up it and says he’s saving her, the cheek, the downright cheek. OK, she was probably a bit bored living in that tower, but at least she didn’t have some prince tugging his whole...

Following protests, a still-ongoing rent strike and a two-week occupation, Manchester University students have won a 30% rent reduction for semester one. This will cost the university around £12 million, making it the biggest win for student rent strikers in the UK. The student union will now hold a vote of no confidence in Vice Chancellor Nancy Rothwell, and the rent strike will continue next term. Students at Manchester Metropolitan, Goldsmiths, Edinburgh, Cambridge, York, Nottingham, Bristol and Queen Mary universities are getting organised for a January rent strike, with more universities...

Over 60 MPs, mostly Labour — but not Labour leader Keir Starmer — have signed a letter against a flight to deport dozens of people to Jamaica on 2 December. Some airlines have refused to operate the flight. The Tories’ pitch is that the people deported have serious criminal records. But they should have the same right to live free as anyone else who has served their sentence.

Michael Chessum, national organiser for Another Europe Is Possible , spoke in a personal capacity with Sacha Ismail. Written up and edited by George Wheeler. You’ve written an article on openDemocracy, arguing that the anti-Brexit Left made a serious mistake at the 2018 Labour Party conference. What’s your thinking? We’re in this period of mopping up after Corbynism, and I wanted to challenge myself to reflect about what we might have got wrong, rather than what others got wrong. I don’t conclude we were wrong in any of the politics we advocated. What I conclude is that we began determined not...

On Wednesday 25 November the majority of the takeaway food delivery workforce in Sheffield struck. The strike affected all of the big apps — Stuart, Deliveroo and UberEats — and involved over 100 drivers. It effectively shut down the delivery service across the city. On the drivers’ WhatsApp, pictures flooded in of restaurant order boards overflowing with uncollected orders. The workers were united around three key demands: living wage after expenses; a fair process around discipline, with hearings and natural justice for drivers accused of infractions; and a hiring freeze, to stop the big...

Friday 27 November saw an online launch of Paul Embery’s book, Despised: Why the Modern Left Loathes the Working Class , sponsored by The Full Brexit, a group which promotes the fantasy that Brexit is an “historic opportunity… for restoring popular sovereignty.” Embery is a well known proponent of “Blue Labour,” the idea that a moderately social-democratic project in the Labour Party can be reinvigorated only if it also promotes conservative social values, not just Brexit but supporting immigration control, opposing Black Lives Matter, lauding Britain as a Christian country, and supporting...

Striking Rolls-Royce workers at the company’s Barnoldswick plant face a lock-out, after bosses closed the site from 27 November. Strikes against plans to cut 350 jobs at the factory were scheduled through to 23-24 December. Rolls-Royce has said it will immediately transfer work currently being undertaken at the site to Japan, Singapore, and Spain. Unite officer Ross Quinn said: “We have consistently called on Rolls-Royce to work with us to find the resolution that the members who have given their working lives to Rolls-Royce deserve. “However the company has shown absolutely no appetite to...

“These fools, man.” E shakes his head. “If we had locked down earlier we wouldn’t need this. And now what? More lockdown after this.” “Cummings, Johnson, idiots. That’s why I don’t vote, bruv.” That is a sentiment not uncommon on the station. Most people accept Labour might be doing a better job, some people think Corbyn was screwed over by the press, but politicians are politicians and they are not to be trusted. We used to have a manager who was a member of the Labour Party. The only person ever to criticise Sadiq Khan... from the right. “What can he expect from the TfL deal if keeps calling...

The Chief Inspector of Constabulary delivered on 20 November an outline report on “effectively managing protest” requested by Home Secretary Priti Patel, and is due to produce the full report by February 2021. The Network for Police Monitoring reckons the prospect is of increasing police powers against protesters above the level already given by the Public Order Act 1986. Explicit exemption from virus curbs for political protests done with due care was deleted for the current lockdown, but may be reinstated from 2 December. On 29 November police had a heavy presence at a London protest against...